(9) Another broken pearl of high quality.
(10) Two fine brilliants declared to have formed part of an ornament of large size.
(11) Portion of a large diamond silver-mounted ornament bearing traces of heavy blows.
(12 to 21) Precious stones—diamonds, sapphires, rubies, almandine, and topazes—and settings, all bearing marks, as experts show, of having been crushed or severed by heavy or cutting objects.
(22 to 28) Articles and appurtenances of apparel, including pieces of cloth identified as parts of the Empress’s skirt, the Tsarevich’s military overcoat and Botkin’s overcoat; six sets of corset steels—the Empress would not permit her daughters or the servants to go without corsets, neither would she herself; (Demidova wore them also—that would make exactly six); metallic parts of corset suspenders and fragments of silk and elastic; the Tsarevich’s belt buckle; the Tsar’s belt buckle, both identified; three paste shoe buckles of first-class workmanship, one identified as the Empress’s, two as belonging to the grand duchesses; a large number of buttons, hooks and eyes, etc., some identified as belonging to the Empress’s dress, also military buttons corresponding with the uniforms and caps of the Tsar and Tsarevich, as made for them by the court tailor in Petrograd. The appurtenances of female costume were such as the court dressmaker used for the family. There were also parts of apparel such as were used by the tailor who dressed the court servants. The footgear remnants showed strong action by fire. Experts were able, however, to note that they included cork and fine brass screws, both evidences of high-class articles. In their opinion the remnants might well represent seven pairs of boots.
(29 to 41) Exhibits of equal if not greater interest. Among them may be cited:—A pocket case in which the Tsar always carried his wife’s portrait; three small ikons worn by the grand duchesses, having in each case the face of the saint destroyed as if blows had been aimed at them; the Empress’s jubilee badge of her Lancer regiment; the gold frame of Botkin’s eye-glasses; a large spectacle glass such as the Empress wore at Tobolsk; remnants of the Tsarevich’s haversack, in which he was accustomed to keep his treasures; several bottles as used for smelling salts, always carried by the grand duchesses, and finally a varied assortment of nails, tinfoil, copper coins, etc., which vastly puzzled Sokolov till somebody, I think Mr. Gibbes, reminded him that Alexis was fond of collecting odds and ends, being of a very saving disposition, like his father.
Then came a number of specially important relics. First, a series of Nagan bullets, some entire but bearing the marks of the rifling, some without the lead core, some in the shape of blobs of moulten lead, still unmistakable. Secondly, in the shaft itself, a human finger, two pieces of human skin, and in the clay of the mound many fragments of chopped and sawed human bones, which could still be certified although they had been subjected to the action of fire and perhaps of acid. Experts found that the skin was from a human hand. The finger is described as belonging to a woman of middle age. It is long, slender and well-shaped, like the Empress’s hand.
Near the shaft was found a set of artificial teeth (upper jaw with plate), identified as Dr. Botkin’s. The front teeth were deeply encrusted with mire, as if the body had been dragged face downwards and thereby the teeth, catching in the hard clay soil, had dragged the plate out of the dead man’s mouth.
When the first inspection of the death house was made—ten days after the murder—it bore all the traces of having been plundered by people who had first slaughtered the owners. The reader will be able to picture it, but his imagination will not come up to the reality. Amidst this scene of pillage and confusion one felt that a careful hand had destroyed everything that could help the investigation; nevertheless highly important clues came to light, among them a full list of the Red guards who had acted as gaolers, the Tsar’s private cypher which he had hidden away—as if expecting to be able to reclaim it some day.
In the death chamber there was a curious inscription in German, written by a man of some culture—not Yurovsky, therefore, but perhaps one of the two men from the Chrezvychaika whom he had left in charge of the house on his departure. It was an adaptation of Heine’s lines on the fate of Belshazzar:—